Spirit of Giving?

(I wanted to name this post
The Stress Spirit of Giving, but you can't do that little crossy outty thing in the title)

Wow- December 2nd!
Can you believe it?
Are you totally in awe that the end of year has come so quickly?

Well, you shouldn't be!
It comes the same time every year!

(That's what my dad says!)

It doesn't matter. It's still a shock.
Each. And. Every. Year.

Each year I think I am on top of things and I start my gift shopping in July.
Yes, July.
I have to!
With three Littles, you can't let the holidays creep up on you!

And I have major FOS!!
FOS?
(When I was a  waitress for all those years, we would go up to the window and yell
"I need an FOS ! On the FLY!"
For those of you who are curious, FOS is French Onion Soup. And the FLY is fast- like super fast- like CRAP I forgot to put in their order Fast!! )

But in this instance, FOS is NOT French Onion Soup.
It is my holiday disorder
( I have many and I like to spread them out).
FOS=FEAR of SUCKING!

Each year, I feel like I am going to let someone down if their gift is not as good as or better than the gift that I bought them last year.
It can't happen!
They sit around my Christmas tree and they anticipate something great!
They know that mom, daughter, wife, aunt, sister-in-law Squirrels isn't going to let them down.
At least they hope I'm not.

So I always have to start early, so that I can space things out and not take such a hard hit on the ol' wallet each year.
I can't wait to tell you what the Littles are getting.
(I would tell you now, but I know for a fact that 1/3 of the Littles enjoys my posts.
That is my favorite Little.
That Little might get a better present than ANY of the others at Christmas.
That Little might even get to open one or two before every one else.
 That Little better get their Little hiney  off of the computer and get in the shower and if it looks like "That Little" is snooping again, That Little is going to get CRAP!!! and COAL!! and for Christmas....)

..... I will now insert enough time for That Little to close my computer and walk away.....

But do you see what I am saying?
You don't want anyone to "not love" what you are getting them.
You want them to talk about it for a long time to come.
You want them to say "Oh, my, goodness, it was just what I wanted!" or "How did you know? It's PERFECT!"

It's very stressful to suffer from FOS.
It almost makes a little (yet completely heard) part of me not want to "do" Christmas at all.

But we are.
We have the tree and the decorations up.
The children are super excited because their advent calendars started this weekend.

It is INCREDIBLY hard to know that in various places around the living room there are decorations that hold almost a months worth of candy- although, to be honest, I could go through that "month" in one sitting.

While they are happy about them, "someone" in the house is a little sad that he was left out of the daily treat thing.
Thanks to Kristen, I may have to go shopping for a puppy advent calendar- do they even make those?

I guess I would be happy to wake up and mark each day with a "little something".
Do they make advent calendars with shotglasses in them???
They should make one for the WHOLE YEAR for TEACHERS ONLY!!
(I'm coming up with some million $$$$ ideas here tonight folks!!)

Maybe it would calm me a little and relieve my FOS!

When the holidays are here, the only thing that acts up more than my FOS, is my LOP.
LOP?
Love Opening Presents!!!
OMG! I LOVE opening presents!
I love guessing what is in there!
I love shaking it to see what's inside!!
I love opening it to see if I'm right!
I love being surprised!
(I also love tearing the paper back a little if said present is in my house to make sure that the present I bought for that person is of equal or higher value.....again with FOS!!!)

There are a few things that make me NOT love to open stuff though.
It's when the giver has a history of giving me something that is not thoughtful at all- or is "work" on my part.
I will give you my two best examples that I can think of right now.

So not thoughtful! (And gross)

and

Too much work on my part!!

Not just the year that it was so graciously given to our precious little family, but EVERY YEAR AFTER THAT FOR A STRAIGHT 10-12 YEARS.
Some people get less time in jail for involuntary manslaughter!!!!
I think every relative who "gives" this book and elf to a sweet little family, secretly HATES the family they are giving him to-
Seriously!!

(I could go on for days and give many details about this little guy- and if they ever invent the advent calendar with Shots for Teachers in it- I might.....BOLO for that)!

I decided that part of my gift giving this year to some of the teachers in my building would be VERY thoughtful and NO work AT ALL!

There is only one teacher I know of in my building who follows me (HI!)
so I am not worried about spoiling their gifts here in this post.

I am in the process of printing, laminating and cutting some centers for them!

Truman says Hi!

Now these centers happen to be ones that I made- BUT my reasoning for giving them to them is this.
1) if I send the file, they will most likely never print them.
2) If they do print them, they will have to do all the cutting and laminating.
3) It is a school wide goal to get these kiddos fluent in their facts to ten!!
So my buds in K can use them with a few higher ones. My second grade pals can use them for intervention, reviews. And my first grade friends can use them, period.
And I am also putting them in sheet protectors in a folder with the cards that match the board inside!

Whew- now I have a couple of people marked off my list.
They are not the people who will be here around my tree this Christmas, but they are people who count- and they are people who do not need any more candles, bottles of lotion, tree ornaments with their name on them, or mugs with I heart my teacher.

With all this talk of giving, I have to go look at my list, check it twice, and possibly cross off "THAT LITTLE" who may or may not be still hanging around reading this post!
Have a wonderful week-!